Four Arrested in Craig’s List Scam

Be careful when shopping on craigslist. See this weeks article from Barbara Ross and Dave Goldiner at the NY Daily News.

Four real estate scam artists used Craigslist to defraud thousands of apartment hunters in New York City out of a total of $1 million over nearly three years, according to the New York Attorney Generalâ€™s office.

Igor â€œBobbyâ€ Portnov, Boris â€œBrianâ€ Portnov, Nader Jaber, all of Teaneck, N.J., and Brooke Corio of Staten Island were charged with felony fraud for a scheme that enticed people in search of rentals to pay hundreds in bogus search fees.

The four ran a phony real estate company called Innovative Apartments. They claimed to have access to exclusive apartment listings. Customers who wanted access had to pay $200 for a â€œcredit and background check.â€

The fake real estate company e-mailed clients listings cut and pasted from other online postings, most of which were unavailable. When people complained, they were ignored or issued refunds in the form of bad checks.